Yu-Gi-Oh - The Cards as an RPG

[JBPuffin]

Alright, call me crazy, but I've been looking for a way to play Yu-Gi-Oh as a valid RPG ever since I've owned both some cards and Legos (let's just say a good portion of my life...). Whether it's simulating the duelists bringing monsters into the real world to beat up their enemies or playing as the cards themselves, I want to know how this can work as quickly and painlessly as possible.

And, hopefully, free of charge.

You here knows of a Yu-Gi-Oh rpg? Is it any good? If not, who knows a system that could be hacked to do a bit of both the duelists and the cards they use? If not that, would anyone have any ideas for building something like this? If not even that, who's got a general RPG system that I can screw around with to build such a thing?

[Mutazoia]

Not to rain on your parade but, I'm not really sure this would be a very interesting game to play as an RPG. Let's face it....you could role play all the stuff that happens between the duels (the kind of stuff they put in the cartoon (that they made to sell the game)) but sooner or later your just going to be back to playing the card game as soon as you get into a duel. And let's face it, it wasn't a well designed game to begin with (hence the target of kids 10 and under and the whole cartoon bit to try and make it look cool).

While something like this might be a good exercise in game design, I doubt it would have any life outside the drawing board. IMHO naturally.

[Sith_Happens]

Bit confused, do you want the duels to use the actual card game, or some sort of dice (or other) mechanic to simulate the outcome of a duel? Because either way would be awkward as heck.

[JeenLeen]

I haven't seen anything like this, but I have contemplated a game like this. Just as homebrew, though.

I could see using nWoD base humans (the mortals in the core rulebook). That works for getting you through the plot, while you use the cards for actual duels.
Although the latter kinda hurts depending on how optimized your PCs' decks are as opposed to the enemies. (In the show, almost if not everyone has horrible decks, as I'm sure you know, and only won due to incredible luck, magic, or the rules being otherwise than what the rules are.) There wouldn't be any effective way to fight 'mooks', since every fight would be a duel. But in modern format, games are pretty fast (I played years ago when Warrior Toolbox was a top-level deck) so I guess that wouldn't slow down play too much.

Um, but back to ideas.
Give your character HP (health; stamina; etc.) as well as something like mental strength. HP damage is done through the plot; if the character gets beat up or falls down a cliff, they lose HP.
Mental strength is like HP, but it is your resolve for duels. Something like for every 1000 damage you take, you lose 1 Mentality. Or you're fine in a normal duel, but you lose it in a Shadow Game. Magical powers can also do this, such as if you fight someone who uses magic to scare you extra, or you are in a special shadow realm that does extra damage.
You die (or are KOed) if HP reaches 0 and die (or are trapped/cursed/comatose) if Mentality reaches 0.

You could very well be close to winning a duel, but your mental resolve is low so that they beat you by forcing you to forfeit (i.e., drop unconscious.)

...
What could work better than integrating duels with the system would be integrating the mythos of Yu-gi-oh. You don't play the cards, but you use them to cast spells or summon monsters to fight for you. Make it more like a tactical D&D-style game, but your PC stays in the back slinging spells and summoning monsters. If the monsters die, though, you can take damage. I guess you could use Mutants & Masterminds and focus on summoning different types of minions, with some effects for spells (Spell/Trap cards), and add on something about losing Toughness with each monster destroyed or something... doesn't really fit, though.

In either case, I'm not sure how to make a fun game out of it, but there's some ideas.

[Sephoris]

I have seen a couple attempts to do this with Magic. Planeswalker (http://community.wizards.com/forum/general-discussion/threads/3923521) and the Magic: The Gathering RPG (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Magic:_the_Gathering_RPG) are the only ones I can find at the moment. Of course, there's only a pretty superficial similarity between MtG and YuGiOh, but maybe it's enough to give you some ideas.

[Kadzar]

Since the game in the show seems to often come up with a lot of rules out of nowhere and mostly runs on Narrativium more than anything else, I figure Fate Core (which is available as a free download (http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/)) would be a perfect fit. And Googling such a thing found something which, if nothing else, would prove a good base (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?705400-FATE-My-unpolished-Pokemon-Yu-Gi-Oh-style-cartoon-game).

It apparently uses rules from Diaspora, which has an online SRD (http://www.vsca.ca/Diaspora/diaspora-srd.html) (aka free rules), but both games are similar enough (since Diaspora is based off of an earlier version of Fate) so if you wanted to convert it to that system or borrow mechanics from one game to the other, it wouldn't be that hard.

Probably the reason I'd want to use Fate more than any other game for this is the fact that players can make up their own Stunts, which allow you an exception to the rules of the game. So I would have a Stunt that allowed me to use Resources instead of another skill one per duel, and call it "Screw the Rules, I Have Money!" :smalltongue:

[CarpeGuitarrem]

It'd be hilarious fun if you played as the monsters on the cards.

I call Blue Eyes White Dragon.

[Mutazoia]

Since the game in the show seems to often come up with a lot of rules out of nowhere and mostly runs on Narrativium more than anything else, I figure Fate Core (which is available as a free download (http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/)) would be a perfect fit. And Googling such a thing found something which, if nothing else, would prove a good base (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?705400-FATE-My-unpolished-Pokemon-Yu-Gi-Oh-style-cartoon-game).

It apparently uses rules from Diaspora, which has an online SRD (http://www.vsca.ca/Diaspora/diaspora-srd.html) (aka free rules), but both games are similar enough (since Diaspora is based off of an earlier version of Fate) so if you wanted to convert it to that system or borrow mechanics from one game to the other, it wouldn't be that hard.

Probably the reason I'd want to use Fate more than any other game for this is the fact that players can make up their own Stunts, which allow you an exception to the rules of the game. So I would have a Stunt that allowed me to use Resources instead of another skill one per duel, and call it "Screw the Rules, I Have Money!" :smalltongue:

Yup.

Ya can't go 5 posts into a thread with out somebody trying to pawn Fate off on ya..... :smallwink:

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Actually, since Wushu Open runs off of the "Rule of Make Stuff Up", that would work hilarious with that schtick. You can throw in randomly made-up rules on the spot.